Large scale Medlan Chapel Road project to finish end of September

Young County Commissioner Matt Pruitt said he's been getting a lot of calls in the past couple of weeks from concerned citizens living on Medlan Chapel Road.

The reason for the calls centers around a Young County Precinct 2 road crew tearing up a stretch of more than four miles of that road for a state-funded project that all five members of the Commissioners Court have been working on for almost a year.

The projects, effectively labeled CETRZ, or county energy transportation reinvestment zones, are meant to fix county roads perpetually damaged by energy industry vehicles, and last year the state of Texas allocated $225 million for the initiative.

Some counties were assessed more funding than others, and after submitting all of its applications for participation in the project, Young County ended up with a little more that $500,000, or more than $700,000 after the 20 percent mandatory kick in from the county was factored in.

This left Pruitt with about $200,000 for his precinct 2 area, and he chose four miles of Medlan Chapel Road on the west side of Young County for his project. All $200,000 will go to the one project, he said.

“This road really does get driven on a lot by oil industry vehicles,” Pruitt said.